2011 Holiday Clay Craft

Here are some practical suggestions to help build concentration in children.

★ Time

Provide your children with the gift of time for relaxing, free play. Time is a concentration aid - when we become totally absorbed and lost within an activity our concentration is humming at 100%. Watch your children when they are immersed in an activity and you can clearly witness their concentrated, fully focused attention span. They need to know they have all the time in the world available to them so they can relax and let go into their imaginations.

★ Basic Physical Needs

Along with a well balanced diet and sound bedtime routines, children need plenty of exercise to release negative energy buildup and to provide increased energy through fitness. Fit and healthy children have higher rates of concentration.increase concentration

★ Silence

Encourage your children to be comfortable with silence. Explain that being able to sit still and find a place of inner stillness will help them to develop and increase concentration and enhance their attention span.

Give them something to concentrate on, a tree, flower, view, memory, photo or book and encourage them to enjoy the silence alongside you from an early age.

★ Posture and Breathing

Teach your children how to stand erect and tall, and to breathe correctly into their diaphragm. Shallow breathing prevents a good flow of oxygen into the bloodstream, while breathing well encourages a feeling of strength and well-being, producing confidence. Encourage your children into activities that promote good breathing such as singing, sport and exercise.

★ Encourage Reading

Continue to read aloud to your children regularly as well as encouraging them to read to you.

Promote reading as a bedtime wind down activity rather than having a television in your child's room. memory game concentration

★ Memory Game Concentration

Do you remember playing this game when you were younger - locating cards as you remembered which pairs matched?

How about memorizing the items on a tray and writing down as many as could be remembered? Our education system then also taught us how to remember poetry, tables, songs and maths rules. Rote learning was good for enhancing concentration skills.